I wasn’t surprised to get a call from Mione telling us she had a tawny owl in care.

The owl was found in Drymen on Sunday evening by one of Mione’s volunteers. It had been put in a cat run at Glendrick Roost, and left quietly for the night.

By morning there was no improvement. The owl was on the ground and easily lifted.

Mione said she couldn’t feel anything wrong with the owl, but clearly something wasn’t working properly.

She arrived at Hessilhead a couple of hours later, with a very smart tawny owl in a cage. Mione had done the right thing, covered the cage with a towel so the owl couldn’t see out. A lot of birds panic in a cage and keep flapping at the bars to escape.

This was a perfect tawny owl. Its chestnut feathers, streaked with buff and cream, looked immaculate.

Two big, dark eyes stared at me from the round face. I checked the wings and they seemed ok, and the legs seemed to be in good working order.

Tawny owls have feathers all the way down their legs, but it was possible to feel along their length. There was nothing our of place.

That left the eyes. As I expected there was no reaction when I moved my hand in front of the owl. The owl didn’t move around the cage. It sat in a corner till the next feeding time.

We are hand feeding this casualty. Fingers crossed it makes a good recovery.